The Dupe in the Payback
by Rochelle Templer
Summary: Originally written for LJ's Bitesize Bones Crack and Cliche Comment fic meme. The prompt: Daisy tries to get back at Sweets for not going through with his intended proposal...by making him think she's dumping him for Booth.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This is the other story that I wrote for the Bitesize_Bones Crack and Cliche comment fic challenge a little while ago. It will be much shorter than The Confusion in the Duckling, and also a bit bizarre coming from me. But I hope you enjoy it. :)

I would like to thank **Fourth_Rose** from LJ for coming up with this prompt.

I do not own Bones or any of its characters.

I'd like to thank everyone who reads/follows/reviews this. Again, it's always appreciated. :)

The Dupe in the Payback

Special Agent Seeley Booth leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers together behind his head. He had just finished up the last of the paperwork for the latest case he had solved and found himself happy to be able to put it aside. It had been a messy affair involving jealousy, corporate politics and copious amounts of alcohol. But after two grueling weeks, he had managed to trip up the murderer in his own alibi, cracking the case wide open.

'_That will teach him a lesson about why you shouldn't rely on circus performers for corroboration,' _he thought to himself.

Booth stood up and stretched, turning off his computer. He was pulling his suit jacket back on when he spied Daisy Wick heading toward his office. He sighed and plopped back down into his chair.

He reminded himself that all the squints…even the interns…were "his people" and thus deserved the respect that came with being a member of his team. He also remembered what Cam said about how, despite all her interpersonal faults, Daisy was a hard worker along with being very bright. Plus, he knew about how much she meant to a certain psychologist, who he considered a close friend. All this, along with his Catholic upbringing, made it so that he usually did not find her…eccentricities overwhelming.

But in this moment, seeing her march toward him, her ponytail swishing back and forth as she walked, Booth wondered how strong his resolve in this area truly was.

"Agent Booth? I hope I wasn't interrupting something," the intern said as she opened the door and walked into his office.

"Not really," he replied. "I was just getting ready to…."

"Great," she grinned as she pulled up a chair and sat across from him. "Because I really need to ask you a super-important question."

"Sure," Booth nodded while trying his best to work up a smile.

"I was wondering….You've been in serious relationships before, right?" Daisy said. "I mean there was that one you had with your son's mother, even though I know that didn't work out. And I heard that you had a thing with Doctor Saroyan, and obviously that didn't really work either or she wouldn't be with that gynecologist…."

"Didn't you have a question Daisy?" the agent interrupted, wanting to end this line of conversation.

"Oh yes," she continued, undaunted. "What I want to know is: if you're with someone and they mean something to you, you let them know that, right?"

"I suppose so."

"And because they knew that you cared for them and loved them, they knew that you wouldn't lie to them, correct?" Daisy asked. "I mean if you told them something, something about your relationship and where you wanted to take it, they could believe the things you told them, couldn't they?"

Booth ran a hand over his face. He was exhausted and did not feel like participating in this game of double-talk. But he had a strong suspicion that this was somehow connected to her relationship with Sweets, so he wanted to choose his words carefully.

"Daisy," he said, rising to his feet. "When a man cares for you…especially in the way you're thinking about…it's far more than just the sum of his words. It's part of how he thinks, how he acts. You'll be able to see signs of his feelings for you everywhere if you are looking for them."

"So…you're saying that his actions will mean a bunch more than his words will?" she asked as she stood up.

"I'm saying that a man will show you his heart through the things he does," the agent said. "Just ask yourself this: what do his actions say to me?"

Daisy nodded her head thoughtfully a few times, and Booth could swear that he could see the wheels turning in her head. Then she suddenly ran over and grabbed him for a tight hug. Booth stiffened in her embrace, his arms held outward from his sides.

"Thank you so much for your help, Agent Booth," she practically squealed. "I know just what to do now, thanks to you."

"Ok, ok. Glad I could help," he muttered as he carefully extracted himself from her. She beamed at him as she backed out of his office.

After she left, the agent felt a shudder pass through him. He wasn't sure why, but for some reason he felt uneasy about the things she said just before she left. Deciding to ignore it, Booth turned out the lights and pulled out his cell phone as he walked out of his office.

"Hey Bones, it's me. How about we meet at the Founding Fathers for a couple drinks? No, not really hungry. I just really need a drink right about now."

* * *

After a couple of stiff drinks with his partner and a few hours of quality sleep, Booth felt refreshed and ready for any challenge that could be awaiting him at work. He hadn't been called in for any new homicides, but he figured that it was only a matter of time. So the agent decided to do some much needed catch up on a stack of paperwork during what was sure to be an all-too-brief downtime.

He poured himself a cup of coffee and settled down in front of his computer. He had been at it for over two hours when he heard someone open his office door.

"Excuse me. Can I come in?"

Booth looked up to see a distraught-looking Sweets standing in his doorway. There were shadows under the psychologist's eyes along with the too-bright glint of tears in them. The agent noted that the hand that was holding the door open had a slight tremor to it.

Booth saved what he was working on and pushed away from his computer, steeling himself. Sweets was obviously very upset about something and was seeking consolation from him. He didn't always enjoy dealing with the therapist's strong emotions, but he knew that he couldn't bring himself turn Sweets away when he was in this state either.

"Sure," Booth said. "Go ahead and sit down."

Sweets crept into the room and started to sit down on a nearby chair. Suddenly, he stopped himself and jumped back upright so he could pace around the office.

"No…no," the therapist muttered while taking great pains to avoid looking directly at Booth. "I uh, I have something I need to ask you…No, something I need to say…."

"Look Sweets, if this is about Daisy…."

"So it's true?" Sweets asked as he sprang toward the desk to face him. "You two met last night?"

"She stopped by my office last night, yes," Booth answered cautiously. "She said that she had something important to ask me."

"I see," the psychologist responded quietly. He turned his back on Booth for a moment and began taking a couple of deep breaths to compose himself. When he turned back around, Booth blinked at the expression on Sweets' face. Anger, sorrow, confusion: all of them were there, and all of them were competing for dominance.

"Agent Booth," Sweets said, his voice becoming increasingly cold and brittle. "Over the course of the years that we have worked together I…I thought that we had cultivated a certain measure of professional respect for each other. And I suppose I was hoping that that extended into a sort of personal regard as well."

The psychologist let out a short, frustrated breath and leaned against a chair in front of him, gripping the top of it. Booth saw that the tremor in Sweets' hands had become more pronounced.

"I know that I've made mistakes. Major ones, in fact," Sweets continued, swallowing hard. "I have always regretted them, and I tried to make up for them. I guess I thought that I could eventually be forgiven for them, but now I see that that was a mistake. I understand, and I probably deserve any sort of lingering animosity that you might have for the things I've done in the past."

"Sweets, I…."

"Please let me finish," the therapist snapped, his tone icy. "What I'm saying is that, if you want to sever our professional arrangement, that's fine. I'll learn to deal with it. In fact, if you want to sever our…friendship…I can learn to accept that too. But what you're doing now, I can't accept it. I'll _never _accept it. And you should know that I'm going to fight for her, no matter what."

Booth shot up from his chair, confused and vaguely irritated.

"What are you talking about?" he growled. Sweets met his tone with an even angrier expression of his own, his large brown eyes starting to turn black with rage. After staring each other down for almost a minute, Sweets spun on his heel and began to stomp out of the office.

But Booth was quicker. He dashed out from behind his desk and managed to block Sweets at the door. He then grabbed the therapist by the arm and dragged him toward a chair. Sweets struggled and tried to shrug him off, but the agent's grip was far stronger. Booth shoved Sweets down into a chair, and then yanked another chair over so he could sit in front of him. Once he sat down, he leaned over toward the psychologist, making sure to look him straight in the eye.

"Sweets, please tell me what the hell is going on."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Next chapter. Sorry about the gap in updates. I've been so busy here lately. But today I plan on doing more than one update, so there's that to look forward to at least. :)

I do not own Bones or any of its characters.

Thank you to everyone who is reading/following/reviewing this.

**Lives in the now: **Daisy certainly does have the tendency to be rather...impulsive in her actions. Unfortunately that can turn out to be a bad thing. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well. :)

**Fear Herself: **Don't worry, I can relate to being swamped with schoolwork. I can't believe how busy I've been this semester. And I'm glad that you're enjoying the crack (or semi-crack as the case may be) fics. I'll admit that it was a new thing for me, but I am having a lot of fun with them. Thanks for the review and good luck with your classes.

**Writerchick786: **I'll confess to having mixed feelings about Daisy these days. Part of that might be the writers' fault, but part of it is how her character has developed here of late. I plan on being pretty balanced in this fic, but obviously the focus won't be on Daisy as much. Glad you liked the bits of humor though. Booth strikes me as being a pretty understanding person, thus I think he would try to get along with Daisy for a variety of reasons...As for Gallo's future on the show, hard to say. I've heard all sorts of rumors. I guess we won't know until toward the end of the season...

**D: **Haha, yes Daisy is even worse than Brennan when it comes to misinterpreting things. Plus the fact that she's more impulsive than Brennan makes for a toxic mix at times. I know this wasn't fast, but I hope you enjoy the update anyway. :)

The Dupe in the Payback—Chapter 2

Sweets glared at Booth for several minutes, and the agent began to think that he would have to ask for an explanation again. But then he watched as the psychologist's eyes began to water up, and he hung his head. Sweets swallowed hard and started to fidget before finally responding.

"Last night…Daisy came to my place and said that she had something important to discuss with me," he said, his voice low and unsteady. "She said that she had done a lot of thinking and had decided that she did not come back to DC from Maluku just to let life pass her by. She said that the way things were going between us necessitated drastic action."

Booth nodded attentively. He didn't like the direction this conversation was going in and was beginning to wonder what role his talk with Daisy had played in all this.

"She said that…that it was probably time for her to move on," Sweets nearly quavered. "That it might have been a mistake to pick things back up with me. She said that she needed something…someone more."

Booth tightened his jaw, but remained quiet. He had encouraged Sweets to move on and not resume his relationship with Daisy after she returned, but the psychologist had refused to listen. He hadn't held it against Sweets; during a series of talks the two of them had over the past few weeks, Booth learned that the therapist had suffered through a long stretch of loneliness while most of his coworkers were scattered around the world. The agent understood that it would be nearly impossible for Sweets to resist the lure of comfort, security and intimacy that would come with getting back together with her, especially after going through something like that. Initially things seemed to be going well, so Booth kept his opinions about their relationship to himself out of deference to his friendship with the psychologist.

But now it looked like Daisy was going to leave Sweets again, and Booth found himself regretting his decision to remain completely neutral on the issue. Even more than that though, Booth was shocked and more than a little angry that Daisy had the audacity to crush the therapist's heart again so soon. He was about to offer some words of sympathy when something Sweets said suddenly resonated in his mind.

'_Wait….someone more? Someone?' _he asked himself. '_What did she mean by that?' _A tight, heavy knot began to form in his stomach.

"I tried talking to her, telling her how I feel and how much she means to me, but she wouldn't listen," Sweets continued. "She said that her mind was made up…and that she wasn't going to make the same mistake Doctor Brennan did."

'_Oh God,' _Booth thought. '_Please let me be wrong. Please don't let him say that…'_

"She said that she had found a real man," the psychologist said, his expression growing angry again. "Someone who cares about strong, intelligent women and who is appreciative and honest with them. In other words: you."

'_God…he said it,' _Booth groaned inwardly. '_What on earth is she thinking?'_

"She said that she came by your office last night and that the two of you talked about relationships and how they should be," Sweets added. "She said that it was then that she realized that she needed a man like you instead and that you understood that."

"Sweets, I don't know what Daisy told you, but…."

"I guess, I just…I don't understand," the psychologist sniffed, the hurt look returning to his features. "I was so sure that you are in love with Doctor Brennan and that while your feelings might be complex and convoluted they are also absolute and steadfast. But more than that, I thought…I thought that you weren't _that _guy…the guy who would…."

Sweets stopped and shook his head while Booth leaned back in his chair.

'_The guy who would steal your girl,'_ Booth finished for Sweets in his mind. '_The guy who would ruin something that meant so much to you just for his own selfish reasons. _For a moment, the agent wondered how many times Sweets had run into those types of people in his life.

"Sweets, stop right there," Booth finally interrupted. He used a voice that he had honed from many years spent leading others both in the military and in the Bureau. The people who served under him always knew that when Booth used this voice, it was time to shut up and pay attention. To his relief, Sweets also fell right in line, halting his words and making sure to look back up at the agent.

"Listen carefully," Booth said. "I don't know what Daisy said to you or what she is thinking, but I can tell you one thing for sure: there is nothing between us. Nothing at all. Last night, she came to my office and asked for some advice. I gave it to her and that was the end of it. I did not make a move on her, and if she was sending signals, then I missed them entirely. Either way, nothing happened between us."

"So you weren't….you didn't…?" the psychologist stammered out.

"No," the agent said emphatically. "Never happened, never will. I'm not that guy, Sweets. I wouldn't do that to anyone. But more importantly, I would never do that to you."

During all this, Sweets had kept his gaze fixed on Booth, his eyes shining with intensity. Booth knew that the therapist was watching him to see if he was lying and thus didn't mind the penetrating stare. Eventually Sweets broke eye contact and slumped forward in his chair.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his head down again. "I should have known better than…I should have trusted you."

"It's ok Sweets. I'm ready and willing to forget about it if you are."

"But why?" Sweets said as his head shot back up. "Why would she tell me that if you two weren't...?"

The two of them were suddenly startled by the sound of the office door opening. Both of them looked over to see Daisy slowly creeping into the room. Her face was turning crimson and she had a hand over her mouth.

"Lancelot, Agent Booth…Oh…"

The intern rushed in as they stood to meet her. She stood in front of them and kept looking back and forth between them, her ponytail swishing about violently.

"Um Lancelot, I think there might have been a teensy bit of misunderstanding on your part," she said as she squeezed the tips of her index finger and thumb together.

"Misunderstanding?" Sweets replied, incredulous. "You told me last night that you needed someone like Booth in your life. That I wasn't enough for you."

"Technically, I never said that I was actually dating Agent Booth," Daisy said. "What I said was that I found what I needed in a man like Agent Booth."

"Ok, you guys don't need me for this, right?" Booth said, trying to shoo them out of his office. But neither Sweets nor Daisy moved.

"So what, are you saying that it's not Agent Booth, but someone like him?" Sweets asked. "And…wait a minute, are you saying that I am not man enough for you?"

"Um, Sweets, Daisy, this is my office, you know?" the agent cut in. "I have a lot of work to do, so why don't you guys just go and…."

"What kind of game are you playing, Daisy?" the psychologist asked while narrowing his eyes at her. "I deserve an answer, and so does Agent Booth."

"That's ok, I really don't need one," Booth interjected.

"Oh, so you deserve an answer, huh?" Daisy spat back. "Well what about what I deserve? Do I deserve to be part of a little game where you propose and then take back and then you say you'll propose again and then change your mind?"

"What?" Sweets said, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. Booth put his face in his hands and groaned.

'_Just give me a dead body right now,' _he said to himself. '_Is that so wrong to ask for? Just let Bones or Cam or even Clark call my cell phone right now with a case of some kind. Hell, I'd even take Hacker calling me into his office for advice on dating Bones. Anything to get me out of here…well maybe not the Hacker thing….'_

"You know what, I need some more coffee," Booth said as he grabbed his mug off his desk and edged toward the door. "So I'm just going go and…."

But before he could make it out, Daisy's hand shot out and grabbed the agent's arm.

"No Agent Booth," she said. "I think you should be here to hear this too."


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Final chapter. Sorry this took so long to finish. I'm hoping to wrap up more than one of my projects over the next month.

I do not own Bones or any of its characters.

Thank you again to everyone who has read/followed/reviewed this. It's always appreciated.

**D: **Sorry, sorry, but I do agree with you. Daisy's recent behavior had made it harder for me to support the idea of the two of them as a couple. While their relationship seems pleasant enough on the surface, unfortunately I can see one of two things happening: Daisy decides to move on to a "better" opportunity or Sweets slowly and painfully discovers that he will never be able to commit to any kind of long-term future with her. Considering how the recent penultimate episode went, it's looking like it's going to have to be one of those solutions in the end. Unless there are drastic changes on Daisy's part, I just don't see the two of them working out.

**Bookwormlady: **Ha, well I was trying to go for a more humorous tack with this fic, so I'm very glad that you enjoyed it. :) This chapter won't be quite as giddy, but I did try to sprinkle in a little bit of humor.

**Lives in the now:** Considering how eager Booth can be to get out of discussions about Daisy, I'd could picture him being even more desperate to avoid this kind of conversation. :) As for Daisy's reasoning...well it is very _Daisy_, I think...

**Writerchick786: **Sweets can be a bit impulsive and jealous at times, so it wouldn't surprise me that he might react badly at first to this kind of news. But then again, Booth seems to have won his hard-earned trust (and yeah, I do think it is hard-earned, much like Booth). So I could see him wanting to mend fences fast once he realized the misunderstanding...Yes, as much as Booth tries to get along with all the interns, I suspect he has thoughts like these frequently when dealing with their eccentricities.

**Rankor01: **Hee, I love your kids vying for attention analogy. That is exactly the kind of vibe I was going for...As much as I'm disappointed with Daisy's character this season, I was wanting to write something with some balance along with something that better addressed the unspoken issues that probably exist between the two of them. I mean, the two of them got back together without much resistance on Sweets' part, and a large part of me wonders if it was all really that easy. Thus why I couldn't resist this fic prompt. I am happy that you are enjoying though. :)

**Peanutmeg: **Thanks for the review. I plan on dusting off some older projects for the next week or two so that I can wrap them up and cut down on the number of open fics. I have a batch of new fic ideas I want to get started on soon, thus the need to finish some things up. And yeah, I've noticed that Booth became a little cooler toward Daisy ever since Season Five's TNatBM episode, even going as far as to discourage Sweets from getting back together with her in the Season Six premiere. I'm feeling that the reason lies with the notion that Booth might have that Daisy is using him somewhat...and I've noticed that Booth doesn't take kindly to the idea of any of "his people" being taken advantage of.

**Dannihavok: **Glad you are enjoying it. :D I don't usually do a lot of humor, but I did get a kick out of verbalizing Booth's inner misery at being caught in the middle of another Swaisy incident. Hope you enjoy this last chapter.

The Dupe in the Payback—Chapter 3

Booth surveyed the scene around him and began to think tactically. He tried to search for a way to bypass Daisy and escape into the bullpen. But every path would involve bulldozing through the intern and that did not seem feasible or appropriate. Trapped, Booth moved off to the side and slumped against the wall. He decided that it wouldn't be out of place to pray that this would be a short confrontation.

"Now, I know you said that you were going to keep your mother's ring after I gave it back to you when I got back from Maluku," Daisy continued. "But you never really said if that meant that our engagement was over."

"Usually that's how it works," Sweets said, incredulous.

"But then we started getting back together," Daisy said, reaching over to play with the psychologist's tie. "Remember? That night in your office? That one evening when I was working late at the lab and we found that broom closet where…."

"Ok, I think we all get the idea there," Booth interrupted. "How about we move on?"

"Anyway I thought we had gotten past all that," the intern said. "Especially when we realized that we were like Jesse and Screech."

"Wait, what?" Booth asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"You probably don't want to know," Sweets responded. Booth held out his hands and stepped back, trusting that Sweets was right on that account.

"I figured that we would get engaged again at some point," Daisy said. "I mean, we were before, so there's no reason why we couldn't do it again….And, and you started talking about how good things were going and how close you felt to me. So I checked your diary…."

"Wait, you read my journal?" Sweets asked. "I keep that in a locked drawer."

"Well, Lancelot, you're not always that careful in making sure that it latches shut," she said. "And you are pretty distractible at times." She grinned and began running her fingers along his collar.

"You wrote that you were thinking about proposing to me and that you were going to talk to Agent Booth about it," she said. "I was so excited, especially when two nights later you said that you were going drinking with Agent Booth so you could talk about things…That night, after that cab dropped you off at your apartment, and I helped you get into bed…you said…."

"Oh God, what did I say?" the psychologist asked as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You kept mumbling that you were finally going to do it," the intern nearly whined. "That you were going shopping for a ring and that you were going to surprise me. I spent all day getting myself all ready to act surprised and then you come home that night and say that you needed 'time alone to think'. No ring, no surprise…nothing at all."

Daisy huffed and started to pace in a tight circle.

"I didn't know what to do," she said. "I kept wondering why you changed your mind…Then maybe I thought that Agent Booth might know something. That maybe it was his advice to you that changed your mind. I wanted to find out for myself what kind of advice he was giving, so I stopped by his office to talk to him."

The intern finally stopped and went back to staring at Sweets' face, her eyes wide and lit with indignation.

"After talking to him, I knew that Agent Booth hadn't been the one to give you that advice," Daisy went on. "He's too much like Agent Andy from Doctor Brennan's books. And it was then that I began to think that…that maybe what I wanted was the same thing that Doctor Brennan wants: a man like Agent Andy to take care of her. Not someone who won't make up his mind about what he wants. So I decided to test my hypothesis by acting as if I had someone like Agent Andy, or in the case of real world Agent Booth, in my life."

Daisy then turned to Booth and walked toward him.

"I'm sorry if my attempt to test my hypothesis caused you any problems," she said. "I needed to see if my Lancelot is the one for me or if we both needed to move on to find what we were really looking for. I would never come between you and Doctor Brennan."

"Daisy," Booth sighed. "Bones and I are just part-…."

"Besides, I didn't think you'd care after you decided that you didn't want to propose again," the intern added, whirling back toward Sweets. "But then you were so jealous…I guess you really do care."

Daisy went back to playing with the psychologist's tie and running her fingers along his chest and collar. But instead of leaning into the touch, Sweets flinched slightly.

"Daisy, I…."

"Why, Lancelot? Why didn't you propose to me?" Daisy asked. "I thought you loved me."

"I do," Sweets insisted. "But it's more complicated than that." The therapist signed and stared at his shoes for a moment. Booth noticed a slight tremor in Sweets' hands and became concerned at how agitated he was acting.

"A lot happened…while you were in Maluku," Sweets mumbled, lifting his head only slightly. "I…I was in a pretty bad place for a while. And, I'm still figuring out where I am after all that and after everything else that's happened recently."

The psychologist looked up and took Daisy by the shoulders.

"I love you, but I don't want to propose to you out of some kind of fear of being alone or because I'm scared that the relationship isn't moving as fast as it should," he said. "When I propose, I want it to be because I'm ready to make a real commitment with the person who makes my life what I need it to be."

"Oh Lancelot, that's so sweet," Daisy grinned as she leaned in to kiss him. Sweets accepted the kiss and embraced her to add a few kisses of his own.

"Ok, now that that's all cleared up," Booth said, clapping his hands. "Time to go." But neither of them seemed to hear the agent.

"Sweets? Daisy? Come on, I've got to get back to work," Booth said, moving closer. "Got catch all those murders…and then there's that paperwork to be dealt with."

The couple said nothing, just continued to hold each other and kiss passionately. Unwilling to deal with them anymore, Booth placed one hand on each other their shoulders and slowly nudged them toward the bullpen. Once he got close enough, the agent managed to open the door and with one final shove pushed the two of them out, shutting the door behind them. Sweets and Daisy were only momentarily dazed before the two of them nearly skipped off, hand in hand, toward Sweets' office.

After watching them leave, Booth slumped back down in his chair and heard his cell phone go off.

"Oh hi, Bones. No, not too busy. I can meet you for lunch…No, no I don't think that would be a good idea. No, I think Sweets is going to be…detained for a while. Yeah, so let's just the two of us go to that Thai place, ok?"

* * *

Later that evening, Booth made his way to the Founding Fathers and ordered a beer. He was ready to spend a little time alone at the bar, when he spied Sweets sitting near a window, nursing his own beer. The agent thought about leaving him to his own thoughts when he noticed the somber look on Sweets' face and the way the light in his eyes seemed dimmed.

Booth picked up his bottle and walked over to the psychologist's table.

"This seat taken?" Booth asked.

"No, go ahead," Sweets said, turning toward him with a half-hearted smile. The two of them drank in silence for a few minutes, both of them ordering another drink and an appetizer to share before speaking.

"Agent Booth, I'm sorry about earlier today," Sweets said. "We shouldn't have dragged you into our problems, and I regret letting things go that far."

"It's all right Sweets," Booth insisted. "But shouldn't you be somewhere else right now?"

"Maybe," the psychologist shrugged. "But this is where I need to be for the moment."

Their drinks and food arrived and the two of them nibbled and sipped quietly for a couple moments.

"Daisy and I…we have a lot of things to work on," Sweets continued. "I realize that now. I think I realized even before I thought about proposing. I just didn't want to confront it at the time. All I know is that it's for the best that we put off any long-term commitment for now."

"Daisy knows about all this?" Booth asked.

"She does," Sweets nodded. "She seems fine with it. Says this gives her time to see what kind of path she wants to blaze once she gets her doctorate and makes it so that she won't make any irrational decisions."

"And you're fine with it?" the agent asked, taking another swig from his beer.

"I don't know," the psychologist said quietly, going back to stare out the window. "I guess I need time…to think."

Booth nodded and plucked a couple fries off the communal plate. He thought again about what Sweets had said in his office and became concerned. His allusions to the time he stayed in DC while practically everyone else left had sounded much darker than what had come up in their conversations over the last couple of months. He watched Sweets peer into the night sky for a minute before speaking again.

"Sweets, what you said to Daisy…about what happened while she and Bones were in Maluku…I…."

"It's all right Agent Booth," Sweets said, turning back to face him. "It was a rough patch, but I'm dealing with it."

"But you don't have to deal with it alone," Booth countered. "You know that, right?"

"I suppose I do," the psychologist said with a half smile. The agent gave him a knowing nod and snitched a couple more fries away.

"So…you know that case you gave me that profile for?" Booth said. "You know the one with that pastry chef with the fake French accent?"

"What about it?" Sweets said taking a drink.

"He finally confessed," the agent said. "Turns out that his rival Jean-Paul, had stolen his new strawberry dream cake recipe and that's what set him off…not the fact Jean-Paul was sleeping with the murderer's wife."

"I knew it," Sweets beamed. "Didn't I tell you that it would turn out to be work-related?"

"You were right," Booth replied. "That's why the next drink is on me, my friend."

Sweets chuckled, and he and Booth ended up spending the rest of the evening going over recent cases as the events of the day drifted away from their thoughts.


End file.
